Christa Giles

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toward the ideal in form and moreover connects the rituals
of society with those of art: ˝The canons of good society˝ are
therefore ˝the canons of art. Form is absolutely essential to
it.˝ 86 Form is not removed from life, rather it becomes ˝the
secret of life.˝ 87 An extension of this idea is the dandy’s
replacement of moral with aesthetic values. Mrs Erlynnes’
frivolous statement, ˝manners before morals,˝ 88 in fact has
its genesis in Barbey d’Aurevilly’s Du dandysme et de George
Brummel, where it is stated: ˝Les manières c’est la fusion
des mouvements et de l’esprit et du corps.˝ 89 By extension
then, the body becomes a signifying surface, indeed at once
˝surface and symbol.˝ 90 It is for this reason that Wilde states
that the mystery in the world resides ˝in the visible not
invisible,˝ 91 and that it is ˝only shallow people who do not
judge by appearances.˝ 92
Dandyism not only became the embodiment of the
aesthetic mode of being, its very existence functioned as an
unspoken reproof to the Philistines. Dandyism as a theory
was essentially developed by Jules Barbey d’Aurevilly and
Baudelaire, who obviously influenced Huysmans and
Wilde a great deal; both were predisposed to view the
dandy as a new type of aristocrat. Indeed, he was symbolic
of an aristocracy of spirit in a world which was not
˝moving towards good or evil,˝ but in Renan’s view,
moving towards ˝mediocrity.˝ 93 Therefore, Baudelaire